Recent research from the 
drug and alcohol Bank:
Inpatients often gain little more from alcohol advice than from screening
Many with alcohol-related disorders, risky drinking hospital inpatients with time to reflect on their problems ought to be prime candidates for brief advice. This updated synthesis of studies found some significant impacts but these were inconsistent, perhaps because merely being identified as a heavy drinker has an impact on its own.
Alcohol screening/brief advice: it can work, but how do you get it to happen?
UK-focused review of what affects implementation of brief alcohol interventions at the level of the organisation, the staff doing the work, and the patients. Staff and patients are in theory willing, but health service providers and commissioners need to pull more of the available levers and provide more support. Organisational priorities seem the key.
How many hazardous drinkers are identified and advised in london hospitals?
At three London hospitals 4% of inpatients completed a brief alcohol intervention after being screened for hazardous drinking by ward staff. Staff were positive and on one ward nearly half the patients were screened and one in ten counselled, but the overall results are unlikely to dent the public health burden imposed by drinking.
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